Good Morning from Occupy Boston!

Stories of the Day: Feminist social critic Naomi Wolf, author of such books as The Beauty Myth and The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, posted this link on her Facebook page: In a recent interview, private investigator Doug Hagmann said high-level, reliable sources told him the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is preparing for “massive civil war” in America. “Folks, we’re getting ready for one massive economic collapse.” The story has been repeated on a lot of blogs – judge for yourself. For more, click here. For a related story from December 7, 2011, see Detention Camp Order Follows Preparations For Civil Unrest. According to a blog post from July 24, 2011, with similar information that links to another RT report: the Pentagon has announced plans to deploy a 20,000 strong internal troop force within the united states over the next two years civil unrest in the even of a catastrophic even such as a massive large scale terror attacks or economic collapse — thus, dovetailing into the current troop and equipment movements reported around the country reported by truckers and many more sightings by others. For the info, click here. For a related report from RT on the massive amounts of ammunition purchased by the US Department of Homeland Security and the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Office, click here. And: a number of remarkable things happened on May 1. So why is the media so bored with social protest? See The Four May Day Stories the Corporate Media Missed While Fixating On Obama’s College Girlfriend. And Occupy protesters in Minneapolis claim officers are offering them drugs in exchange for telling them what’s going on with Occupy. The officers are all part of a training program run by the Minnesota State Patrol. For the story and video, click here. And a Republican political operative who spent three months in an American prison for making illegal political calls says that fraudulent calls in the last Canadian election are likely an American import. In his 2008 book How to Rig an Election, Allen Raymond tells the story of his 10-year political career, which ended abruptly when he was convicted of jamming the New Hampshire Democrats’ phone bank during a Senate election. Raymond, who now works in Washington as a lobbyist for a labor organization, suspects whoever made illegal voter-suppression calls in Canada in the last election likely learned their dirty tricks south of the border. For more, click here. And on a lighter note: The 1998 Robert Smigel animated short film “Conspiracy Theory Rock,” part of a March 1998 “TV Funhouse” segment, has been removed from all subsequent airings of the Saturday Night Live episode where it originally appeared. Lorne Michaels claimed the edit was done because it “wasn’t funny.” The film is a scathing critique of corporate media ownership, including NBC’s ownership by General Electric/Westinghouse. See the video here.

Other Occupies/Protests: From the anti-austerity firebrands of Greece‘s imminent elections to the corruption crusaders in Prague, from the Pirates of Berlin to the populists who scored well in France’s presidential election, a new wave of anti-establishment parties are on the rise across Europe, posing a threat to the political elite. For more, click here. And on May 1, Oakland Police Fired Tear-Gas On Crowds That Included Children. For more, click here. And a federal judge ordered Oakland’s police department to submit a plan to address numerous unresolved complaints regarding their handling of the Occupy Oakland protests, warning that failure to comply within a week could lead to sanctions. District Judge Thelton Henderson’s mandate comes just a day after the release of a report by an outside monitor that concluded Oakland police used “an overwhelming military-type response” to Occupy’s demonstrations — the first official report to confirm Occupy Oakland’s struggles against police brutality. For more, click here.

“There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.” Charles de Montesquieu

The Occupy Boston Finance Community Work Session, scheduled to address the issues and concerns raised at the FAWG hosted 4/10/12 Community Conversation, concerning Occupy Boston’s relationship to its finances, is now confirmed for Sunday, May 6, from 1:00 to 4:00, at Hope Church, in Jamaica Plain. FAWG invites the entire OB community to help create the financial decisions necessary, for the next phase of the movement. Hope Church is located one block from the Green Street T Station on the Orange Line.

Immigration through Faith: Faith through Immigration – Personal experiences of immigration as a moral and religious issue.A facilitated panel discussion exploring personal experiences of faith and immigration. This session is designed to help participants articulate and claim religious language and relevancy in a conversation dominated by secular and political messages. The panel discussion will be followed by an open period for questions and reflections.

U.S. Immigration History and Your Faith: We will look at who came and why? What laws were enacted as barriers? What role have people of faith played in this history? We will also ask where we find ourselves in the story, and who belongs here?

Single payer is alive! We are working to get the state to pass a new health reform law that includes the following language: “[the state will] provide comprehensive, affordable, high-quality, publicly financed health care coverage for all Massachusetts residents in a seamless manner, regardless of income, assets, or health status.” There is no justice without health care. Join us as we call on state government to pass a real health reform law that includes the following language: “Massachusetts will provide comprehensive, affordable, high-quality, publicly financed health care coverage for all Massachusetts residents in a seamless manner, regardless of income, assets, or health status.” Join us for a Day of Action at the Statehouse on Monday, May 7 at 10 AM. We will be “stopping in” at all 40 Senators’ offices to inform them about the upcoming vote, and to encourage them to support this measure! For more information contact the Occupy Boston Health/Justice working group at: Questions? Contact director@masscare.org or occupy@jimrecht.com

AMEND! – a MassOccupy/Brookline public forum the national movement to amend, what the amendment should contain, and how to bring it about. Wednesday, May 9, 7:00-9:00 p.m. Selectmen’s Hearing Room, 6th floor, Brookline Town Hall, 333 Washington Street, Brookline, MA. Take Green line D Train to Brookline Village, you have about 3 blocks to walk.Featured speakers will be two of the nation’s foremost spokespeople for the movement:• LAWRENCE LESSIG, Harvard Law School professor, author of “Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress – and a Plan to Stop It” and arguably the nation’s leading academic campaigner to end the corrupting influence of money in politics.• JOHN BONIFAZ, leader of the successful 1998 campaign for Clean Elections in Massachusetts and numerous other voting rights struggles in the US during the past two decades, co-founder and director of Free Speech for People, a lawyer highly experienced in conducting public campaigns, and a compelling speaker. Contact:Frank Farlow frank.farlow@verizon.net617-232-9654David Klafter dbklafter@gmail.com617-734-2593Bruce Wolff, balobo@verizon.net, 617-232-8215

Occupy New England – M12 Day of Action and Regional Gathering. 9am-5:30pm, May 12: Come join Occupy groups from all around New England as we converge in Worcester for a day of action and networking! The day will have four core key components to it: getting as many Occupy groups and participants in one centralized location at the same time for a day of networking and planning, direct actions and public visibility, continued actions against corporations backing ALEC, and finally the flared up “War on Women” – discussion on women’s issues (rights, health care, etc…) Preliminary timeline of events:
(Please note the following is a rough draft discussed by Occupy Worcester and the M12 working group. More details will be released later on, and times/actions are subject to change.)
9 am: Begin gathering at Worcester Common
10 am: Second New England Solidarity March
Late morning: Direct Action (w/ CD potential)
Midday: Occupy New England gathering. Have lunch and talk a lot to each other.
Mid afternoon: Occupy Worcester’s Women’s Caucus event, details TBA

Restoring the Dream of Democracy – Reversing Citizens United. A forum with State Senator Jamie Eldridge and attorney Jeffrey Clements. Arlington Center for the Arts, 41 Foster Street Arlington. May 14, 6:30 – 8:30pm. Sponsored by Progressive Democrats of America and co-sponsored by Occupy Arlington. This will be an education session talking about what people can do from a grassroots perspective.

Nonviolence WG will be meeting on May 15 4-5:30 and May 30 3-4:30 at the Clear Conscience Cafe, Central Square, Cambridge. Agenda items include follow-up on support to opposition to the potential BU biolab for level 3/4 hazardous substances; planning for 2 upcoming trainings: one in conjunction with other local community organizations and one for trainers. Contact: Linda Jenkins, Linda Jenkins, lindajenkins177@yahoo.com.

May 17 – nationally recognized transgender activist and member of Occupy Boston Gunner Scott will be honored with The Theater Offensive’s Out on the Edge award. As Executive Director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, Scott led the battle for passage of the Massachusetts Transgender Equal Rights Bill in November. The Transgender Equal Rights Bill, also known as An Act Relative to Gender Identity, makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity in the areas of employment, housing, public education and credit & lending.Who: Transgender activist Gunner Scott. What: The Theater Offensive honors Scott with Out on the Edge award. When: Thursday, May 17 @ 6:30 pm. Where: Hibernian Hall (184 Dudley St, Roxbury). Open to the Public: Yes (with ticket purchase)

Sponsored by the Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series: Book launch for Truth and Revolution by Michael Staudenmaier. May 22 at 6 pm at Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Ave, Boston. Michael Staudenmaier speaks on the Sojourner Truth Organization/STO. STO was Founded in Chicago in 1969 from the rubble of the recently crumbled SDS, the Sojourner Truth Organization (STO) brought working-class consciousness to the forefront of New Left discourse, sending radicals back into the factories and thinking through the integration of radical politics into everyday realities. Through the influence of founding members like Noel Ignatiev and Don Hamerquist, STO took a Marxist approach to the question of race and revolution, exploring the notion of “white skin privilege,” and helping to lay the groundwork for the discipline of critical race studies. Michael Staudenmaier is a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Illinois.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Event Highlights:

Occupy Boston’s General Assembly has agreed to hold the Saturday, May 5 General Assembly at the fabulous Wake Up the Earth Festival in Jamaica Plain. The Wake Up the Earth Festival is the best summer festival in Boston–it not only commemorates a major victory of the 99%–it brings together one of the most politicized and diverse neighborhoods in the city. Wake Up the Earth—WUTE–is a great opportunity to meet, greet and galvanize thousands of people while catching some rays and listening to live music. Staff the table! Help with children’s activities! 10:30: Parade set up. 11:30: Parade leaves the Peace Garden. Peace Garden, corner of School St. and Washington. Stony Brook T Stop, Orange line. Here’s a map from the T to the Peace Garden: http://g.co/maps/4pcp8. 5:00: General Assembly, Southwest Corridor Park–in front of the Stony Brook T in the Sacred Circle–look for the OB banner. 6:00: festival ends. 9:00–after party at Spontaneous Celebrations. The rain date for the festival is 5/6. For more information or to sign up for a table shift, contact/click: Aria: aria@littlhous.net. Joe: cc2manj@verizon.net. http://spontaneouscelebrations.org/

“Connect the Dots” Climate Impacts Day Event, May 5, 2pm – 3pm, Boston Common at Parkman Bandstand across from 165 Tremont Street. Climate Action, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice working group is joining a global day of action to issue a wake-up call and connect the dots between climate change and extreme weather . Come join local climate activists to literally connect the dots in a fun and informative game of (climate) Twister.

3pm-4:45pm Facilitation WG meeting, at City Place Food Court in the Transportation Building

4:30pm-6:30pm Anti-Oppression WG Meeting, at Arlington St. Church (1st floor) 351 Arlington St. (corner of Arlington and Boylston Sts.)

Please note! Meetings and their locations are subject to change. We encourage you to check the Occupy Boston Calendar for the most up-to-date information. There are events scheduled all day for the May 1 General Strike and regularly scheduled events may not be held.

Volunteer Opportunities/Announcements:

1) Issue 7 of the Boston Occupier is out now, and we need your help distributing!!

We rely exclusively on YOU, the broader Occupy community, to get our papers out there to the 99%. So…

** We would love for you to join one of our planned outreach/distribution efforts on the T.

** ANYTIME you’re going to a progressive or Occupy-related event, try to pass out papers. These are the most effective occasions to connect sympathetic readers to our paper. Copies of the issue are stored in the OB cubicle at E5, so PLEASE remember to grab a stack.

** Get them to readers in your community. We recommend small stacks in small stacks in cafes, libraries, bookshops, laundr0mats, community centers, waiting rooms, campuses, etc. Be creative!! But we’ve found that the BEST way to get papers to readers is to hand them out face to face, combining outreach and distribution.

** If you are a part of another local-area Occupy movement, a union, or a community organization that is willing to distribute papers — let’s make it happen! You can just come by E5 (between 9 am and 7 pm most days) and grab a stack, or coordinate with us if you’re not able to do so. Send questions or suggestions about distribution to Julie O (juliettejulianna@gmail.com).

** We’re also trying to raise funds so that we can continue printing the stories of the 99%! To that end, we’ve started a subscription service. Read about it online here. I hope you’ll encourage those you know to subscribe to the paper as well!!

2) Needed: Volunteers who might be available with to help with technical expertise and equipment in the next two weeks for Occupy participants without computer access or computer skills. Project: an upcoming exhibition of photos and short videos of Occupy Boston to be held in Freiburg, Germany. This will be the first Occupy documentation project to be shown in Europe. Please email Bonnie Woods, woods_bonnie@hotmail.com if you are available.

3) GA locations:

The following proposal passed the General Assembly of Occupy Boston on April 17, 2012:

Facilitation Working Group proposes the following changes to the current General Assembly schedule:

Tuesdays: We propose that, effective May 1st, all Tuesday GAs be held outside. We propose the Boston Common as a temporary location with the idea that location may change in the future. We will give Arlington Street Church notice that our last night using ASC space will be April 24, 2012.

Thursdays: We have ended our relationship with Emmanuel Church and therefore propose that all Thursday GAs be held outside effective April 19, 2012, at the Boston Common as a temporary location with the idea that location may change in the future.

Saturday: We propose to continue to hold GA at Community Church of Boston on Saturdays in order to ensure that at least one GA per week is held indoors. FWG is in the process of asking CCB whether it would have space available on Tuesdays. If so we would ask the GA to decide whether that one GA indoors should be on Tuesday or Saturday.

Community Gatherings will remain on Mondays and effective May 14, 2012, will be held at CCB.

This schedule is subject to review by the GA at any time.

Amendments:

FWG will seek access to the web banner and text service to ensure that any change in GA location or time will be widely communicated.

To join the Occupy Boston Community Forum email list, a general discussion list, click here!For a partial listing of Working Groups looking for volunteers, please click here! For a list of Working Groups with contact info, click here!For more information on Occupy Boston’s General Assembly, including passed resolutions, click here! And if you’re interested in learning more about Occupy Boston and how you can participate, click here! For contact info for other Occupies in the area, click here!

Contact Us: Want to subscribe to the Daily Digest?Click here to have it sent to your email inbox every morning! All Working Groups or Occupy Boston events that need placement in the Daily Digest, please email AnnaC@OccupyBoston.org. To view past issues of The Daily Digest, click here. And subscribe to the Occupy Boston Media Rundown, a daily listing of Occupy-related news, by contacting JohnM@OccupyBoston.org.